Buccaneers vs. Giants Game Preview

The 4-6 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 2-8 New York Giants enjoyed their 2024 bye in Week 11, and both will be looking for new beginnings when the two teams return to action against each other on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.

At the most basic level, both the Buccaneers and Giants will be looking to get back in the win column after gaining a bye from four- and five-game losing streaks, respectively. But beyond that, there are reasons to expect significant changes in each team’s season.

The Buccaneers are hoping to get the likes of Mike Evans, Jamel Dean, Tristan Wirfs, Zyon McCollum, Tykee Smith and Jalen McMillan back from injuries and a healthier roster to spark a seven-game playoff run. Meanwhile, the Giants are making the most dramatic field change an NFL team can make, swapping one cornerback for another. Daniel Jones will take the seat and has officially moved up to third on the team’s depth chart; Tommy DeVito, who was a sensation with the Giants last season, will take over the offense.

DeVito, an undrafted free agent in 2023, started six games for the Giants last season, winning three, and the three-game hitting streak he helped engineer has made him something of a folk hero among the team’s fans. The Pirates know there is a meaning behind the nickname “Tommy Cutlets” and living in the house with his parents’ charm.

“He’s very good at dodging rushes and pressure,” Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles said. “He can run around, he can throw the deep ball, he’s very good at seeing the short stuff, he’s very good at seeing strikes coming and he’s very good at getting out of harm’s way. He’s going to be something to deal with.”

New York averaged the fewest points in the league at 15.6 per game and struggled to do much in the passing game or have success in the red zone. However, the cupboard is not bare for DeVito, who will be throwing and dealing a pair of promising rookies in Malik Nabers and running back Tyrone Tracy. The Buccaneers, currently ranked 30th in the league, hope to respond with a pass defense that will be closer to full strength when Dean and McCollum are on the field.

The health of Wirfs, who suffered a knee injury against San Francisco just before the bye week and was a limited participant in practices heading into Week 12, could be critical. That’s because the Giants’ biggest strength is their passing offense. Dominated by nose tackle Dexter Lawrence at center and traded for Brian Burns, who leads the offense off the edge, the Giants lead the league with a sack-per-pass play rate at 13.09%.

“They have a great defensive line,” Buccaneers rookie center Graham Barton said. “With Dexter inside and then on the edge; those guys are really talented as well. It’s a good challenge for us up front. You know, they’re all playing at a very high level at the moment and so that’s what we need to do. We’ve got to be ready, like we do for every opponent.” We have to prepare, worry about our technique, our fundamentals and then more specific things about what they do.”

The Giants’ defense ranks 17th in yards and points allowed and is particularly good against the pass, allowing just 184.2 yards per game. Tampa Bay’s offense, meanwhile, ranks fifth in the NFL in points scored and 10th in both rushing and passing, but has struggled to come up with explosive plays without Evans and Chris Godwin. Getting back to a 30-point-per-game capacity will depend on the Bucs’ pass protection giving Baker Mayfield time to work.

“They have great players up front and they let their entire defense run free,” Mayfield said. “This is a big matchup for our forwards, our tight ends and our backs. They present their own problems. There are guys out there who can ruin the game from every angle. We just have to be ready for it.”

Barring a rare draw, either the Buccaneers or the Giants will break their unfortunate losing streak on Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey. A win by the Buccaneers could spark a post-bye run similar to the one that led to a playoff victory in 2020. A win for the Giants could expand the legend of Tommy Cutlets. Everything will be decided on Sunday afternoon.

GAME AND BROADCAST DETAILS

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-6) at New York Giants (2-8)

Sunday, November 24, 13:00 ET

MetLife Stadium (capacity: 82,500)

East Rutherford, New Jersey

TV Broadcast Team: Andrew Catalon (play-by-play), Tiki Barber and Jason McCourty (analysts), AJ Ross (reporter)

Radio: 98Rock (WXTB, 97.9 FM), Flagship Station

Broadcast Team: Gene Deckerhoff (play-by-play), Dave Moore (analyst), TJ Rives (reporter)

Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente

Spanish Radio Broadcast Team: Carlos Bohorquez (play-by-play), Martin Gramática (analyst), Santiago Gramática (reporter)

ALL-TIME MATCH SERIES

The Buccaneers and Giants will face each other in Week 12 for the first time since 2021, but they were frequent playing partners before this three-year gap. In fact, the two teams have faced each other in five consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2021; This is a highly unusual series between two teams in different leagues. Tampa Bay won three of those five games to narrow the gap slightly in the all-time series; The Giants are still 15-9 overall and have won the only postseason meeting between the teams. Despite winning six more, the Giants trailed the Bucs by just 10 points (460-450).

The Bucs won the most recent contest in 2021 by a 30-10 margin on Monday Night Football at Raymond James Stadium in November, starting a four-game winning streak. The game was close in the first half and tied at 10-10 midway through the second period, but the visitors pulled away with a six-yard Ronald Jones touchdown run and Tom Brady’s five-yard pass to Mike Evans just before halftime. third quarter. Steve McLendon and Mike Edwards intercepted Daniel Jones to help close out the second half.

Prior to this, the five-season stretch was one nail-biting instigator after another. Each team won twice, and the combined margin of victory in those four games was, incredibly, just eight points.

The matchup is historically much closer when the Giants have to travel to Florida, as those 14 games have been tied 7-7. Oddly, although they were never league mates, the Bucs and Giants played two games together three times in the same season (1978, 1979 and 1984). The first was a win for the Giants, but the other two ended in splits. Tampa Bay’s best run in the series unsurprisingly came during the Super Bowl era; They beat the Giants three times out of four from 1997-2003. But four years later, it was the Giants who came to Raymond James Stadium for the Wild Card game in 2007, rudely ending the Bucs’ postseason journey before it even began.

Before this game in 2021, the previous Bucs-Giants matchup was also a Monday Night Football game, this one at the Meadowlands. The Giants suffered a heavy defeat to the 5-2 Buccaneers, who would go on to win Super Bowl LV that season, but they rallied from a 14-6 lead at halftime to take a 14-3 lead. The Buccaneers rallied in the second half with Brady’s touchdown passes to Evans and Rob Gronkowski and took an eight-point lead with four minutes left in the game. Jones led an impressive 70-yard drive that culminated in a 19-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate, but Bucs rookie safety Antoine Winfield, Jr. carefully broke up a pass at the goal line on the ensuing two-point conversion attempt, and the Bucs He escaped with a 25-23 victory.

New York won at Tampa in 2019, a 32-31 decision that led to Matt Gay missing a 34-yard field goal at the end of regulation. Jones made his first career start and was impressive with 336 passing yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, while also running for the game-winning score from seven yards out with 1:16 left in regulation. The Giants won the shootout 38-35 at the Meadowlands in 2018; Although the Bucs rallied from 17 points down, they were unable to make an onside kick after Jameis Winston’s 41-yard pass to Evans. The Buccaneers got their first taste of Saquon Barkley, who had 142 yards and two scores in that contest. In 2017, Tampa Bay won by a familiar 25-23 score as Winston threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns, to Evans, OJ Howard and Cam Brate, and Nick Folk’s 34-yard field goal made it 25-23. because time is up.

• Giants Offensive Coordinator Mike Kafka, who spent six seasons as a quarterback in the NFL, split the 2014 season between the practice squad and the Buccaneers’ active roster. He did not play in any games during the four weeks he was on the active roster.
• Thomas McGaughey, who is in his first season as the Buccaneers’ special teams coordinator, served in the same role with the Giants from 2018-23. This was his second stint on New York’s coaching staff, as he was also an assistant special teams coach from 2007-10.
• Buccaneers starting left tackle Ben Bredeson was originally a fourth-round draft pick by the Ravens in 2020 but was traded to the Giants just before the start of the 2021 season. Bredeson played three seasons with the Giants, starting 35 of 55 games before signing with the Buccaneers as an unrestricted free agent last summer.
• Tampa Bay wide receiver Sterling Shepard was a second-round pick by the Giants in the 2016 draft and played nine seasons in New York before signing with the Buccaneers in June. Shepard played in 98 games for the Giants with 76 starts, recording 372 receptions for 4,095 yards and 23 touchdowns.
• Giants Assistant Defensive Line Coach Bryan Cox was on the Buccaneers’ staff in 2012 and 2013, serving as a pass rushing specialist.
• New York defenseman Rakeem Nuñez-Roches appeared in 68 games for the Buccaneers from 2018-22, making 22 starts. He started all 11 regular season games in 2020 after Vita Vea’s nose injury, then started all four postseason contests as the Buccaneers advanced to and won Super Bowl LV.
• Guard Aaron Stinnie signed with the Giants as an unrestricted free agent last summer after playing three full seasons and part of his fourth with the Buccaneers from 2019-23 (he spent the 2022 season on injured reserve). Stinnie played in 27 games for Tampa Bay, starting 12 of them.